Colleen Edwards, author, speaker and observer of the real estate industry, is one of the West Coast’s leading branding and marketing strategists. Her specialty is messaging to the constituents of the Bay Area’s cities and towns. She is an expert in the areas of placemaking, community building, energizing downtown retail, and consumer perceptions of sustainable design, branding for municipalities, social media strategies and generational messaging. She is a member of the California Homebuilding Industry Association’s Hall of Fame, one of a few women to be so honored.

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Not your grandfather’s architecture
Jeffrey DeMure is an architect by profession and a passionate generationalist by vocation. The principal of a thriving practice in Northern California, Jeff works and speaks all over the country on the subject of reinventing the model for 55+ living. Jeff is quick to remind us that, with Americans l[...]

Holiday wishes
The Real Story wishes you a happy holiday season and stellar 2012. We’ll be back in January with more insights and conversations. In the meantime, be sure to like us on Facebook to get our podcasts delivered directly to your news feed.The entire 2011 lineup of The Real Story is available on iTunes[...]

Great changes a little at a time
When most people think about energy savings in a new home, their minds move almost immediately to solar power. Yet many of the smaller, less headline-worthy technologies readily available today are what really make the difference in one’s energy bills. The Real Story is talking to Chuck Schoenberg[...]

Have an a-maize-ing holiday
On this Thanksgiving, The Real Story thanks YOU for your interest and support. We’ll return next week with more from Chuck Schoenberger of O’Brien Homes on building for the new generation of homebuyers. Log on and listen in![...]

Green building’s cost-to-value radio
One of the best insights about green building for tomorrow comes from a builder who has been focused on quality building for decades. Chuck Schoenberger, Senior Vice President of Operations for O’Brien Homes, could write the book on quality homebuilding. So it’s not too much of a stretch to see [...]

Building a better home, inside and out
The Real Story had the opportunity to sit down with Chuck Schoenberger, Partner and Senior Vice President of Operations for O’Brien Homes. In his 20 years with the company, Chuck has overseen the construction of more than 2,000 homes. These days, he is a homebuilder dedicated to improving the qual[...]

A future with fewer cars?
The Real Story got into a passionate discussion with Jane Warner of the American Lung Association of California. The topic? How the movement toward New Regionalism in California government could change the way we live, the way our children learn, and how many miles we put on our automobiles to carry[...]

Clean air for all generations
Air quality awareness often starts with younger generations and spreads upward. According to Jane Warner of the American Lung Association of California, education programs in the schools tend to filter home to parents and grandparents, and also to teachers and their families. Parents by in large[...]

Cleaning up the air up there
Education is the key to affecting action, and Jane Warner, President of the American Lung Association of California, has plenty of fuel for action. The organization’s web site is full of articles on the national level as well as information specific to California. Speaking of the Golden State, J[...]

Better air, better health
Jane Warner, President and CEO of the American Lung Association of California, has been an ardent follower of green technology—because she can see how innovation in the field of environmentally friendly products directly affects the health of Americans. While visiting the Pacific Coast Builders Co[...]

Taking a deep breath
Question: Why would the President and CEO of the American Lung Association of California attend a building industry conference? What’s the connection between the built environment and air pollution? It turns out that the American Lung Association’s interest in homebuilding is less about measurin[...]

Move down without moving away
More than 90% of seniors say they want to age in place. But, according to Kevin Casey of New Avenue, that doesn’t mean they want to continue to take care of a big yard and a four-bedroom home. A solution is the backyard cottage, an example of which Casey demonstrated with a full-size model at the [...]

Eco-friendly accessories
The notion of using the yards of established neighborhoods for small dwelling units makes a lot of social and sustainable sense. A well-insulated cottage in the back of an existing home can help connect friends and family, and is also more energy-efficient because of its size. For all its virtues, t[...]

Homes by the (back)yard
Two big showstoppers at the 2011 Pacific Coast Builders Conference were, in fact, small. New Avenue, a full-service small home provider, had two of its cottage residences on display. In today’s post, we talk with New Avenue founder and CEO, Kevin Casey about the WHY behind his commitment to these [...]

Farewell to summer
The Real Story is taking this week off. Log on next week for the premiere of our three-part series on backyard cottages.[...]

Andy Zighelboim is a Senior Vice President of the Investor Services Group with Colliers International, Silicon Valley. This week, he talks to The Real Story about the commercial real estate market, where it’s been, and where it’s heading.

But first, a quick tutorial on commercial real estate by the numbers: according to Andy, there is $1.4 trillion in debt coming due and with credit markets still frozen, no liquidity to refinance the loans. With loans that originated in 2006 – 2007, at the height of the market, coming due in three, five, seven or ten years, we will be seeing a rise in notes coming due from now until 2013, then another wave starting in 2015. The financial uncertainties created by these loans will continue to impact the economy until 2017.

According to Andy, in the Bay Area alone, approximately 1,992 commercial properties, representing 9.5 million square feet of space, with loans of $3.6 billion dollars are coming due—numbers that he considers “cataclysmic”. Yet the Bay Area remains focused on residential numbers—foreclosures and sales—instead of looking at how similar loan practices were in place for commercial properties and what that might portend for the commercial properties in the market.

This week’s guest, Panama Bartholomy gave The Real Story some ideas about how soon Californians are going to be seeing big changes in building around the state. As soon as 2011, homebuilders will be required to offer solar panels as a standard feature or as an upgrade—and the state is starting to work on programs to make that change attractive to the homebuilding community.

When you think about it, compliance is going to change not just the way homes are built but quite literally, the way they are planned and sited—solar roofs aren’t efficient on the north side of homes. So how are land planners going to respond? How practical is it going to be, to orient entire neighborhoods for maximum sun exposure? Are land developers going to offset the need for their builder/clients to install solar roofs by developing solar parks or fields within the master plan for their new communities?

Also in the making—by 2020, all new homes in California will be required to meet a Zero Net Energy Standard. That means zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions for all new residences—quite a leap from installing solar panels by 2011. And by 2030, all commercial buildings will be held to the same Zero Net Energy Standard.

The exciting part of the process is that the Energy Commission is open to the public’s input. Public meetings and webinars add to the transparency of their process. For a list of upcoming meetings, go to: http://www.energy.ca.gov.

Here’s an interesting thought, courtesy of Panama Bartholomy of the California Energy Commission. California is now at a crossroads, and will soon be deciding whether it turns into a state committed to creating more energy through the building of more power plants or to become much more efficient at using its energy—very different directions, both politically and economically. Think of it this way: The cost of building more plants will increase the cost of energy. The opposite is also true: use less energy, and pay less. Yet, according to Panama, this is not a no-brainer, and we will be seeing some discussion about California’s energy future in our very near future.

On the personal energy front, he also talks today about the rebate structure for wind energy being revisited, to allow more people to take advantage of this alternative source for power. He also says that the state is making great strides in energy efficiency for homes and businesses, with financing mechanisms to make innovation in efficiency happen.

Zinging down 880 through Oakland, you’re surrounded by traffic, concrete and skyscrapers in every direction. But, should you exit through the Webster Street Tube and motor about 5 minutes over to the west side of Alameda, you’ll find yourself in a landscape of sand, sun and palms at Robert Crown Memorial State Beach. A REAL beach!

The City of Alameda has worked hard to keep it a real beach. This 2.5-mile expansive of sandy beach (the longest on San Francisco Bay), is a favorite spot for hikers, windsurfers and kayakers. Extensive restoration since the 1980’s repaired a century of damage by development and erosion.

Once called Neptune Beach, “The Coney Island of the West”, the area was a nationally known resort with a roller coaster and swimming pools from 1879 until the park went bankrupt in 1939. Dances, swimming marathons, beauty contests, ball games and prize fights made Alameda a popular vacation destination. The sno-cone was introduced here and California’s first professional baseball game was played in its sports arena.

Today, the Whoopee roller coaster is gone and the beauty of nature again takes center stage. Sand brought in from bay dredging projects has revived the beach and dunes to the point where Alameda hosts a Sand Castle and Sculpture Contest here every summer.

A nature center at Crab Cove, a neighboring bird sanctuary and, of course, the miles of sand with views to San Francisco are well worth the visit. Some visitors have commented on the fog and intermittent eau de low tide, but—hey—this isn’t Malibu. It’s our very own beach with its distinctive appeal waiting to be explored.

Under the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger, there has been new emphasis on residential energy efficiency in our Golden State. In fact, the California Energy Commission has developed a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) for resale homes—much like an MPG sticker on a car—that educates the homebuyer on the energy costs associated with that particular home. We spoke with Panama Bartholomy of the California Energy Commission at the recent West Coast Green Conference about new legislation that will impact the energy efficiency of existing homes in the very near future.

In today’s podcast, Panama refers to AB 758 that will “either be passed or vetoed” in the next few weeks and will, for the first time in the nation, give a regulatory agency authority over the energy efficiency of existing buildings. Well . . . it passed! The governor signed it into law on October 11th. The bill paves the way for achieving greater energy savings in the state’s existing residential and nonresidential building stock.

The state’s first energy efficiency retrofit program is the Berkeley First Program, which established a model that is about to be adopted in major municipalities and counties throughout California. The unique aspect of Berkeley First that has contributed to its success is that homeowners are able to finance energy-efficiency improvements through a tax assessment rather than personal debt.

Panama Bartholomy is on a mission to bring California new home builders and the solar technology industry together for a greener approach to homebuilding in the state. The California Energy Commission, Panama’s employer, is entrusted with creating programs that will make including solar in the homebuilding process a standard process.

How will California’s hard-hit homebuilders be able to add a new product to the amenities list when there is no data to show that buyers are willing to pay more for solar? Since most of the builders have been selling homes for less than replacement cost during the last two years, their plans for the immediate future are focused on creating smaller, more affordable homes—and solar doesn’t look like one of the “can’t live without” amenities in their purchasing departments. Panama talks today about the challenges of educating the industry and the consumer about the short- and long-term benefits of solar, and some of the changes the trades might need to make to create an affordable solar future.